Doctor Who_ The Sleep of Reason - Martin Day [108]
There by the Grace of God
(The Dream of Reason)
Laska could hear screams and shouts from within the chapel. Just for a moment she thought she could hear Dr Smith’s voice.
She knew she couldn’t afford to be distracted. She shook her head and returned to the job of cutting through the locked door with the axe. She’d found the axe – a proper fire axe with a red handle and everything – just under the stairs that led into the basement area, along with a bucket of sand and a small fire extinguisher. She’d dragged both items to the chapel doorway, though from the smoke that was seeping under the doorway she wasn’t sure either would prove adequate.
At last she had made a big enough hole to push away a section of the wood.
She waved away some smoke and peered through the door.
Fitz was staring back at her, almost making her jump when he spoke.
‘There’s a padlock this side,’ he said. ‘I might be able to smash it.’
Laska passed the axe through. Fitz hefted the axe above his head and brought it down with all his strength. Even from where she was standing Laska could see sparks flying into the air.
Fitz swore and tried again.
Behind Fitz Laska could now make out a scene of utter devastation. It looked as if a good half of the chapel was ablaze; she could see a number of people, stick figures through the smoke, at the far end of the room. Between them, and the flames, she glimpsed what appeared to be the legs of some enormous spider, encircled by a yellowy haze.
She rubbed her eyes. Perhaps it was just a trick of the light.
Behind Fitz – still hacking away at the padlock and cursing in ever more colourful language – Laska saw Trix and Liz emerge from the smoke. ‘Thank goodness you’ve come,’ said Liz.
‘What’s been going on?’ asked Laska through the split in the door.
Trix and Liz exchanged glances. ‘That’s hard to say,’ said Liz.
‘Is everyone OK?’
201
‘We don’t know yet,’ said Trix. ‘Get that bloody door open, Fitz!’ she added, irritably.
‘I’d like to see you get this done any faster,’ said Fitz, before clenching his teeth for another strike.
This time there was the unmistakable dull thud as something heavy and metallic hit the floor. Laska pushed at the door – hot to the touch but perhaps the only wooden item in the whole of the chapel not already burning.
She staggered backwards when she saw the grotesque centaur thing in the centre of the room.
‘What the bloody hell is that?’ she exclaimed.
But, even as she spoke, the thing seemed to fade from view. Laska remembered her encounter with the dog creature and wondered if the opening of the door had brought with it such a promise of liberation and hope that even the creature found itself momentarily powerless.
‘Thanks,’ said Joe Bartholomew, who’d forded a path through the flames to the doorway. Susannah and a motley group of patients and staff were following him, coughing at the fumes. Joe was in a terrible state, bent double with a huge cut over one eye. The others didn’t look much better.
‘Is that everyone?’ Liz wanted to know.
Susannah bit her lip. ‘This is everyone that’s left.’
‘You mean. . . ?’
‘The burning beam,’ she said. ‘It trapped a couple of patients. I think I saw people getting crushed in the panic. There’s no way we can reach them now.’
She was right – there remained only the smallest of pathways from one side of the chapel to the other. Everything else was writhing with fire and flame; sparks were beginning to fall from the ceiling like burning rain, and more timber beams were creaking ominously. The thick, oily heat was almost overpowering.
‘Looks like these Sholem-Luz things have got some bodies to play with,’
noted Fitz grimly. Even as he spoke a golden glow gripped the far side of the room – not fire, but a sure sign that the alien creatures were flaying away flesh and matter for their own purposes.
‘Then it’s even more important that we do what the Doctor asked,’ said Trix.
‘The sprinklers, the phone lines. . . ’
‘Damage limitation,’ observed Liz sadly.
‘You’ve seen the Doctor?’ asked Laska excitedly.
‘Briefly,’ said Fitz enigmatically.